| District Name: | Old Bay St. Louis |
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| City: | Bay St. Louis | County: | Hancock |
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| District Abbreviation: | OBSL |
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| Preparer: | Claudia Watson, FEMA |
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| Comments: |
| The Old Bay St. Louis Historic District represents the rigorous reassessment of the city’s historic resources in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 which caused extreme damage to the city’s historic fabric. The new district includes the extant sections of the Beach Boulevard Historic District as well as a large residential area to the west of the old historic district boundaries. The western expansion also absorbs the Washington Street Historic District. The Old Bay St. Louis Historic District is composed of 504 acres and 681 contributing resources, including four cemeteries and two religious shrines. The district contains the most significant collection of residential, commercial, governmental and institutional buildings in the city. It reflects the unique history of Bay St. Louis which grew from a small coastal community on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The city is best known as a favored summer resort, first for wealthy white French Creoles from New Orleans and planters from the Natchez district, and then later northerners who came for the pleasant winter climate. Ethnically diverse from its early days, “the Bay” attracted Catholic, French-speaking “Creoles of Color” and other African Americans. Its many Catholic institutions form the cultural nexus of the community. The district is architecturally diverse and features a wide variety of vernacular and high-style buildings. The Old Bay St. Louis Historic District was listed on July 8, 2010. Claudia Watson, FEMA's consulting architectural historian, wrote the nomination. |
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| View National Register Nomination Form |
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